Not A Game
by Ohfortheloveofpete
Summary: An alternative take on Sword Art Online in which Asuna was the beta tester instead of Kirito...among other things.
1. Chapter 1: It's A Trap!

_Hi there! I'm making a Sword Art Online fanfic...it's like the series but with some changes. Oh, and Asuna's the beta tester instead of Kirito._

 **Chapter 1: It's A Trap!**

"Hello, my name is Asuna. If you're one of 10,000 unfortunate people (like myself), you are trapped inside of a video game with no way out. Every day, you run the risk of dying, unless of course you just sit and relax in town. That's what a lot of people do. Try to make the best of their horrible situation. Of course, there's no glory in that, but considering the horrors the climbers face, I don't really blame them. It's been six months since that horrible incident, and I'm still trapped inside a video game." narrated Asuna.

"Asuna, who are you talking to?" asked Kirito.

"I'm narrating to the audience. We're on a fanfic website. " answered the teenage girl.

"Fanfic website? I thought this was an anime!" exclaimed the teenage boy.

"It is, the author is just writing a fanfic about it." answered the rich girl.

"Oh..." acknowledged Kirito.

"Anyways, I think I'll start talking about the first day I played the game. Or rather, before that. I was one of the beta testers for this game. And yes, I hadn't played video games before then. It was an interesting experience. When people were talking about NerveGears, they said that they could use it to create a virtual reality. As for their creator, they were built by Kayaba Akihiko. As of the time of this writing, I curse his name with all my heart. But at the time Sword Art Online was in its beta stages, he was extremely popular. Nobody else had managed to build something like this. I bet Nintendo and Sega would be jealous." said Asuna.

"One of these beta keys was sent to my brother...but since I had never played a video game before, he decided to give it to me. I'm so glad that he's my brother. Of course, he's probably mourning what happened to me as of today, though of course at the time of this writing I'm still alive. I'm trying to keep it that way...unfortunately, the higher you go up Alfheim, the more deadly the monsters become. And unfortunately, the same thing happens to the player killers. And yes, there are player killers in this game, even though killing a player is killing them in real life. Perhaps some people are simply twisted like that. Or maybe the game is driving them insane. I know I'm starting to question how sane I am nowadays myself." continued the girl.

"I will reluctantly admit that I enjoyed playing the beta stage of the game, though I will also admit that, for some strange reason, the monsters in the game were rather sadistic. I've lost count on how many times I played the beta. Fortunately, the monsters are much easier to deal with nowadays, though even so you have to be careful not to be killed. At least there are crystals for that. I wonder if they were designed by Kayaba Akihiko himself...or someone else." remarked Asuna.

"Anyways, I think I'll start talking about the day I got trapped in the video game...Sword Art Online."

 _Six months ago..._

Asuna was feeling rather ecstatic. She enjoyed the beta stage of Alfheim Online so much. Now today the beta would be over and she would be able to play the game for real.

If she had known that the game was actually a death trap, she wouldn't have been nearly as excited. In fact, she probably would have run away screaming in terror.

If only she had known then. But as it was, she had no idea what was coming and was looking forward to having a NerveGear.

At that very moment, the mailman showed up at her doorstep.

"Woohoo!" exclaimed Asuna.

As soon as the package was brought in, Asuna happily opened it.

Sure enough, there was a NerveGear inside it.

Curious, she noticed that there was a label on it.

"Totally Not Dangerous At All. Feel Free To Put It On Your Head. Really, I insist." read the label.

"Huh. I wonder why the author would put that on all the Nerve Gears. The beta NerveGear didn't have that label. Oh well." said Asuna as she put on the NerveGear.

Immediately, she was sucked inside the video game. If only she knew then that she would never able to return. Why couldn't she be clairvoyant?

Fortunately, she happened to have her old character from the beta. Thank goodness for that, eh?

Of course, she hadn't made it that far in the old game, on account of the difficulty. Still, she was impressed with herself, especially considering that she hadn't played a video game before.

And to make things better, there were now more classes to choose for. Before you were restricted to melee, but now you could be an archer or a spellcaster. It was a pretty sweet deal.

She had managed to make friends during the beta stage...perhaps they were playing the finished game now as well.

Her thoughts were confirmed. There was one nearby. It was her friend Lisbeth.

"Hey, Lisbeth!" exclaimed Asuna.

"Hi, Asuna." answered Lisbeth.

"Aren't you glad we get to play the game for real instead of simply the beta?" inquired the swords lady.

"Yeah...on the other hand, we did get to play the game before anyone else." answered the blacksmith.

Immediately, they noticed some wild boars.

Quickly, they charged towards the duo.

Fortunately, it appeared that they were slower than they were in the beta, so they didn't have to worry as much.

Asuna slashed through the boar and it burst into shards. She then collected the boar meat.

"I think I'll sell these to a shop somewhere." said Asuna. There would likely be shops set up by both NPCs AND the players.

"Good, because I think I'll set up a shop myself." nodded Lisbeth.

"What shop will that be?" asked the rich girl. There were many shops in Aincrad.

"Probably a blacksmith shop. I still happen to have a lot of blacksmith experience." said the metalworker. Of course, she probably wouldn't be a blacksmith in real life...but at least she could have fun doing so in the game.

Immediately, Lisbeth pulled out the menu so she could log out.

"See you." said the girl.

"This game is so awesome. I would hate to ever leave." remarked Asuna.

How Asuna wished that she hadn't said that...six months later.

"Well, you might not be leaving any time soon...I can't find the log out button!" exclaimed Lisbeth.

"The log out button?" questioned Asuna.

Curiously, the log out button seemed to have mysteriously disappeared. How would they log out now? She sure hoped that this was only temporary. Her parents would want her to stop playing the game by dinner time. And how she loved roast turkey.

This was unfortunate. Her parents would likely be worried about her.

Looking around, she noticed that other players were asking the same question.

It then dawned on them what was going on.

"We're trapped!" screamed Lisbeth.

"Who could have done this to us?" asked Asuna.

They were about to find out.

At that very moment, she was transported to some sort of arena along with everyone else that was playing the game.

"It looks like everyone's here..." noted Asuna.

As perplexing as the inability to log out was, this was even more mysterious.

Was this the work of one of the admins? To her knowledge, there were only three of them, including the author, Kayaba Akihiko himself.

At that very moment, a giant cloaked figure appeared. Apparently, this was him.

"Greetings. My name is Kayaba Akihiko. Since there are 10,000 people playing the game, I decided to explain the rules to you. Well, not quite that high of a number. A few people have already perished...and it's all because of their friends and family. What a waste." noted Kayaba.

"What?!" exclaimed Asuna. People that played the game were dying? This game was starting to sound unsafe.

"You're probably wondering why you can't log out, and the beta testers are wondering why there's no longer a respawn point. Rest assured that this isn't a bug, but a feature." answered the creator of Sword Art Online.

This frightened Asuna along with everyone else in the arena. It looked like they were all trapped in Sword Art Online whether they liked it or not.

However, what the author had to say to them next was even worse.

"From now on, there is no respawning. If you die in Sword Art Online, you die in real life. Your heart will stop as soon as your avatar bursts into shards." explained the author.

This caused many of the people in the audience to scream.

"I don't like this game anymore!" screamed a player amongst the audience.

"You're probably thinking "Why can't I just remove the helmet?" The answer is you can't. If you do, you'll receive a fatal electric shock." answered the creator of this deadly world.

Once again, the audience screamed. It was quickly becoming apparent to them that they should have never put on those helmets in the first place.

Then again, who would have thought that they would be so deadly?

"Fortunately, I'm a reasonable kind of man, so I'm going to cut you a deal. If you by any chance reach the final floor (in other words, the 100th) of Aincrad and defeat the final boss, you'll be allowed to leave the game and go home." said the author.

"No kidding?" asked another member of the audience.

Asuna sighed in relief. Perhaps she wasn't quite as trapped as she thought. Even so, she got the feeling that it would take a very long time before anyone to reach the 100th floor in the first place. She knew that none of the beta testers ever made it that far, including herself. A few of them had made it to the 50th floor, but that was about it.

There was also most likely going to be a lot of bloodshed...unless of course, she decided to simply relax and stay in town and not actually play the game. She would have to rely on others to clear the game so that they could all go home, obviously, but at least she wouldn't have to worry about her NerveGear stopping her pulse if she died.

Still, even if she was in danger of dying in the real world, she did have a craving for adventure. Perhaps that had stuck with her from when she was a beta tester for the game.

It seemed like the best way to die was to do what she loved. Besides, the Grim Reaper wasn't a bad guy...at least once you got to know him.

She decided that she would try climbing Aincrad and see how far she could make it. People would consider her to be a hero if she chose to help them escape the game. Maybe if she was lucky she could find an exploit that would let them all log out, though she would have to use it before any of the admins took notice.

However, it then occurred to her that there were 9999 other players playing the game, minus the players whose friends and family had gotten the bright idea of simply removing the NerveGear. Why couldn't things be that simple?

Maybe she could make some friends. Sure, some of them would probably be horribly killed, but at least she would be able to make friends. Since she was rich, people seemed to think that she was above them. Just because she was rich doesn't mean that she treated everyone who wasn't as wealthy as her like dirt. Besides, being rich was all good, her fiancé was a total creep. Why did her father choose him again?

She decided to visit the local tavern. That seemed like a good place to get a party...though she didn't exactly feel like throwing a party right now.

Immediately, she opened the door and went to look inside.

 _I hope you're enjoying this alternative fanfic. There are going to be some changes since there are some things in the anime that I would like to change. Don't give me wrong. I don't necessarily think that Sword Art Online is a bad anime, I just think it could be better in some places. Besides, I like being creative._

 _You've probably noticed that I've made some changes already. Instead of simply being one admin (who of course is the author) there is three. You're going to hear more about them later. I figured it would be more realistic if there was more than one administrator, even in a game like this._

 _Also, Asuna is the beta tester instead of Kirito. I figured that would be interesting. I was thinking about writing a fanfic like this for a while though I wasn't quite sure what to make it about. I settled on this._

 _Let me know if you have any suggestions. Peace!_


	2. Chapter 2: Level Grinding

_In this chapter, Asuna's going to start doing some level-grinding. The best way to survive Aincrad is to keep leveling your character, right? If you do it often enough you'll basically be invincible._

 _Also, we'll get to meet the three admins in charge of Aincrad Online. They have very different moralities. One of them is Heathcliff, of course. The others are different characters entirely._

 **Chapter 2: Level Grinding**

"Well, I hope that my message was meaningful. They're living in my world now...so they should know the rules." noted Heathcliff. No doubt a lot of people would want his head...but if that was what it took to make his virtual world a reality, then that was what he was going to do. He was surprised how many people had bought the game. Was his game really that popular?

"I find it so amusing that people have died even though they hadn't actually started the game yet..." remarked Raiden. Compared to Heathcliff, he was a sadistic admin indeed. His avatar was a black knight. In real life he was known as Taichi Urasawa, and he had black hair like his avatar underneath his helmet. He carried a black sword...that for some strange reason was stained with blood.

"Do we really have to make this game a death trap?" inquired the third of the admins. She was the lone female of the three. Her in game name was Diana. Her real life name was Hikari Tajiri. Her appearance was a young lady wearing a strapless white dress with no shoes. Also, she carried a magical staff.

"It's not a death trap. I'm giving them a chance to survive..." stated Heathcliff. He'd like to think that he was willing to listen to Diana's advice. Of course, he was also listening to Raiden, who was surprisingly bloodthirsty. Perhaps he should have done a background check on him before making him an administrator. Then again, he was only planning to pick two of them.

Personally Raiden was excited at the opportunity to watch the players die...even if they burst into shards instead of actually bleeding. It was kind of disappointing. Not only that, but they didn't feel pain. If only there was a way to change all that.

Unfortunately, he couldn't act without the consent of at least one of the other admins. Since he and Diana never agreed on anything, Heathcliff was their tiebreaker. Sometimes he agreed with Raiden, sometimes he agreed with Diana.

Diana had been outvoted on not making Sword Art Online dangerous to those that were playing the game, sadly for her. Heathcliff agreed that making the game dangerous would make it more realistic. Diana wished that Heathcliff had not hired him to begin with, but she wanted to keep her job as administrator so that she could help the players playing the game.

On the lighter side, Heathcliff had allowed her to create towns where players could live in peace instead of actually playing the game. Raiden was unsurprisingly disgusted. She also included crystals that they can use to heal themselves.

Currently, the players were exploring the first floor. The brave ones anyway. Many of them were deciding to play it safe in town rather than actually play the game. Just because they were trapped in the game doesn't mean that they couldn't try to live a normal life. It was actually pretty safe there. Maybe they could stay there instead of returning to society in the real world by beating the game.

Elsewhere, Asuna was shaken by the bad news. Was she going to be stuck in the game for the rest of her life, however brief it would be with the deadly monsters in the game? It was quite frightening to her.

"I can't believe that I'm stuck here..." said Asuna. On the lighter side, she wouldn't have to hook up with her fiancee Sugou. He was a real creep. At least she was safe from him in this world. He wasn't playing Sword Art Online, right?

Well, she might as well make the best of it. Maybe she could try hunting boars for experience. Those boars didn't put up much of a fight yet she would be able to gather col and experience for killing them anyway.

Fortunately, since she was a beta tester, she happened to know a great deal about the game already. There were blacksmiths that would be willing to sell her decent armor and weapons if she got enough gold.

She decided to go outside to hunt some boars. She might as well get started leveling up if she wanted to free everyone from the game.

Fortunately, they hadn't noticed her. They were munching on the grass, because the grass was so delicious. For them, anyway. Asuna wasn't even a vegetarian.

She slashed one with her sword, killing it instantly.

Asuna wondered why the admins had betrayed them all like that. Last time she checked Admin Diana was a sweet lady. She wouldn't make a game like this...if you could even call it a game. On the other hand, Admin Raiden seemed to enjoy mocking the beta testers at every opportunity. Maybe this was HIS idea.

At least Admin Heathcliff was playing the game as well. He was killing monsters all by himself. Perhaps he enjoyed playing the game knowing that he was safe. How she wished that she was safe.

Aside from some boars, there were also some goblins. They had their own camp. And speaking of the boars, they were roasting one on an open fire. It would most likely be tasty and refreshing.

One of the goblins noticed her.

"Pretty lady!" exclaimed one of the goblins.

The rest of the goblins began to drool.

Asuna sweatdropped. Did the goblins find her...hot?

Apparently Sugou wasn't the only one.

She was starting to wonder if she should actually kill them for experience. Maybe she could use her looks for her advantage and have them give her loot.

But before she could do that, someone else killed them. According to the name above his head, his name was Kirito.

"Am I kill stealing?" asked Kirito. Players typically got mad at him whenever he did that.

"I wasn't planning on killing them..." answered Asuna.

"OK?" answered the warrior.

"I can't believe 10000 players are trapped in the game like this..." said the beta tester. Thousands of thousands of people that were just looking for a good time. No doubt people would question the safety of virtual reality games. Some of her friends were playing the game too. They were in danger as well.

"Yeah...I just wanted to have fun. Now I'm fighting for my life..." noted Kirito.

On the lighter side, she didn't have to worry about catching any illnesses while in this world. She had a cold last week before she signed up for Sword Art Online and it was not fun.

She hoped that her father was looking for a way to get her out of the game...but unfortunately, he wasn't quite sure how he would do so. Even if he freed his daughter, there would still be over 9000 players trapped in the game.

Wait, did she just reference Dragon Ball Z? If only Son Goku could save them now. But he was just a fictional anime character.

Wait, wasn't SHE a fictional anime character?

"Great, I've only been in Sword Art Online for one day and I'm already going crazy..." noted Asuna.

"Sorry to hear that...maybe we could party until you're sane again?" suggested Kirito.

"Thanks.." nodded the girl. This was Diana's idea, apparently. When you partied up, you got a boost in exp.

"Why would Diana allow people to die in this game?" questioned Asuna.

"I hear that the admins make decisions two out of three...maybe she got outvoted." suggested Kirito.

Asuna nodded. At least Heathcliff seemed willing to listen to SOME of the things that she said.

"I have to admit...the monsters on the first floor are pretty weak..." noted Asuna. Those boars weren't exactly a challenge for her. Of course, since this was a video game, the boars would probably come in many different flavors.

"I know...even the boss of this floor probably won't cause us too much trouble..." agreed Kirito.

So far, there had only been a few casualties...some fools had gone and attracted a train to zone. Luckily, they weren't aggro dumping them on other players because that would make people want to PK them.

Besides, the city guards were paying attention whenever that happened. They wouldn't let the monsters get too close to the town. Thank Diana for them.

However, she got the feeling that the casualties would increase as they went higher up. The monsters would keep on getting stronger and stronger. Who knows what Floor 100 would be like? She heard rumors that there were dragons on the last ten floors. Dragons that wanted to have adventurers for their supper.

Fortunately for Asuna, it seems that she was leveling up rather quickly with Kirito around. However, she knew that she would start to need more exp if she wanted to keep more leveling. Perhaps she should try looking for the boss.

Currently, several players were currently doing the same.

"Where on Earth could the boss possibly be?" questioned one of the players.

"Now that I think of it, there do seem to be a lot of kobolds on this floor..." noted Kirito. He wondered why. There was a kobold sentinel nearby.

Wait...now that she thought of it. Wasn't the first boss a kobold? It didn't seem particularly threatening, but this was the first floor. She couldn't really expect anything else.

Still, it would probably be best not to take on the boss alone. Bosses were meant to be taken on by multiple players, not just one. If she tried to take the boss on solo it would most likely be a suicide mission.

For now, she decided to fight the ordinary kobolds. They didn't put up much of a fight.

Suddenly, a vine latched onto her leg. It was some sort of plant monster.

According to the label, it was a Nepenthes. Thankfully, it was one of the little ones. If she encountered a big one, things could get messy.

She slashed the vine and it burst into pixels. For some strange reason, even though this was technically a deadly game, there wasn't exactly a lot of blood in it. It was ironic. She heard that Raiden had complained about it.

Still, it seemed like Akihito wasn't interested in trapping people in his game if they were children. Perhaps he wanted to keep his conscience clear like that...not that it was clear to begin with.

Fortunately, it seemed that Asuna was leveling up quite a bit. She decided to increase her HP to make sure that she didn't get killed...though on the lighter side, she wouldn't have to marry Sugou if that happened.

Now she felt nice and healthy.

"How's the leveling going?" asked Kirito.

Asuna nodded.

"Wait, if you're a beta taster, how much do you know about this game?" inquired the male player.

"I know that there's plenty more bosses other than that kobold boss, that's for sure..." noted Asuna. They differed wildly in appearance and abilities.

Suddenly, a player ran by.

"Train to zone!" screamed the player.

He was being chased by a herd of boars.

"Oh no..." said Kirito.

Immediately, the boars began to attack them.

Frantically, Kirito and Asuna began to shake them off.

Luckily they did...but at that point their health bars had reached yellow.

Asuna sighed. It looked like they should rest.

"Don't you hate it when that happens?" asked Kirito.

Asuna nodded. This happened all the time back when she was playing the beta. She wished that this game was as safe as the beta was...though on the lighter side, it was a lot easier to survive the game now. The frenzy boars weren't nearly as angry and violent as they were before. Raiden had been somewhat disappointed.

"Let's go back to town, shall we?" inquired the black-haired player.

Together, the two of them decided to head back to town. Something told Asuna that if she ever got out of this game, she would never want to touch a video game again. At least, not one that involved virtual reality.

She wondered if they would all die trying to complete the game...or if they completed the game, how long it would take. Her family would no doubt miss her if she died. They were probably missing her now.

Fortunately, she had enough col to spend at the shops. She was glad that she had partied up. Maybe she could join a guild and see where that took her.

Currently, one of the players was selling a shop. He was an adult gamer apparently, judging from his avatar. It was nice to know that there were adults playing the game alongside the various teenagers. It was a bit like being with their parents.

"So, how did you get trapped in this game?" questioned Asuna.

"I heard rumors that Akihiko was going insane, so I decided to investigate one of the NerveGears myself..." answered Agil.

"Well, you apparently thought right." answered the female player.

"Though to be fair, I think he's sane compared to Raiden. He always seemed to laugh evilly..." noted the bald man.

Something told Asuna that she would not like to meet Raiden. She would love to meet Diana though.

She decided to purchase some better armor and some better weapons. That way she would be ready in case she encountered another train. Hopefully this wouldn't happen if she made it to the higher floors since theoretically the players would know better by then.

Personally she was glad that it wasn't a high-level train, otherwise she would probably be done for.

How fast did the monsters respawn, anyway?

"You wouldn't happen to have a map of the first floor, now would you?" asked Asuna. If so, she would know where to find specific monsters...and possibly the boss for when she was ready to face it. Some of the players were considering fighting the boss already...even if it would be risky to them.

Asuna knew that if the boss was slain, it would take a long time for it to respawn. So it might not be a good idea for her to miss out on the exp. It would help her out if she wanted to go to a higher floor once it was unlocked by the community.

"As a matter of fact, I do." nodded Agil.

"Thanks." nodded Asuna.

Immediately, she picked up the map and had a look at it.

Apparently, the boss wasn't too far from where the town was. That was convenient.

Still, it would be a good idea to make sure she was ready for it. Otherwise she would get killed and then it would be game over for her in the game AND in real life.

"I guess I better get ready for this." noted Asuna.

Of course, even if they did defeat the boss, they would still be a long way from completing the game and having sweet freedom.

 _It looks like we're going to see the first boss of the game...or fanfic...or whatever. And yes, our protagonist Asuna won't get killed...otherwise this would be a very short fanfic._

 _In the next chapter, it's kobold clobbering time!_


End file.
